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Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

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Agent D
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Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by Agent D »

Greetings All -

Just thought I would give a basic outline on converting a photo to a watercolor / graphic - on the cheap. :-)
1 - Final 5 Shelby Anime copy.jpg
1 - Final 5 Shelby Anime copy.jpg (2.26 MiB) Viewed 3068 times
This shoot started as just a learning exercise - it just happened to turn out pretty well. I am by no means a photographer or graphic artist. I just used my basic macbook, iphone camera, and an app called PhotoScape X - Pro - $30 from app store and there is a windows version as well.

So the exercise was to figure out shooting a lying down subject to make her appear to be standing - as Shelby doesn’t stand like my Nikki. After about 60 shots going back and forth to the computer to see how they look, I got about the right angle figured out.
2 - IMG_1150.jpg
2 - IMG_1150.jpg (439.85 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
Next was to pick a background. I had already downloaded about 6 or 7 that I liked, but you never know (atleast as an amateur like myself) what angle and perspective is going to work until you get the subject pic you want and then scale it and place it a dozen times on a background to see if both will work together. This one I felt would.
3 - landscapes_makoto_shinkai_desktop_1265x712_hd-wallpaper-883510.jpg
3 - landscapes_makoto_shinkai_desktop_1265x712_hd-wallpaper-883510.jpg (1020.13 KiB) Viewed 3068 times

Then, with just the Mac Preview tool box - I cropped the raw photo down as tight as I could. (4) And then I like to first take the selector (rectangle) and delete chunks. When you delete your first one it’ll pop up and say you need to convert to PNG - which you want to do. That will retain a transparent background where you delete. (5) And delete away. You don’t have to get too close to the subject - so don’t worry about it.
4 - Raw Shelby shot.jpg
4 - Raw Shelby shot.jpg (122.6 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
5 raw convert to png.jpg
5 raw convert to png.jpg (90.11 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
6 - raw png cut out chunks.jpg
6 - raw png cut out chunks.jpg (68.3 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
With the magic wand selector start selecting the background in sections that don’t include any of the subject, clothing, hair, etc. and hit delete each time.
7 - magic wand color select.jpg
7 - magic wand color select.jpg (125.77 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
So at this point I realized, ah crap, I shot her wearing a white shirt and white socks on a WHITE background. Only thing worse would have been all black. Normally I would shoot against a green screen for standing or an obnoxious teal flat sheet for laying down. But I decided to stick with it as it was just a learning exercise. Glad I did however, as it turned out to be a huge benefit….

For illustration purposes, i’ve taken the image I’m working on and pasted it to a black background so you can see the rough and messy edge detail close up.
8 - Close up of color cropping.jpg
8 - Close up of color cropping.jpg (284.53 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
Normally, for masking, this would be considered be an unmitigated disaster. Cleaning up all the free floating bits and rough edges (circled) would be near impossible. But for watercolor, sketching, manga, etc. it's turning lemons into lemonade. Even if by sheer dumb luck in my case. :-)

Now I’ve got her mostly cleaned up. Note, I knew from scaling her against my background before I started that she would be cut off somewhere around the top of the socks. So I didn’t bother with that part. Ok, so I’m lazy.
9 - Cleaned up raw image.jpg
9 - Cleaned up raw image.jpg (294.86 KiB) Viewed 3068 times
But, as with all cases of dumb luck, I ran across another background that I could leverage not having cleaned up her feet. :-)
10 - Shelby in the lIght.jpg
10 - Shelby in the lIght.jpg (1.98 MiB) Viewed 3068 times


to be continued -

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Lena21
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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by Lena21 »

Nice idea!

8O 8) :whistle: :roll: :wink: :mrgreen: :multi:

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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by Agent D »

Continued -

At this point I’m going to save image 9, in PNG format, and switch over to PhotoScape X - Pro. Now, since Shelby is (effectively) real :-) and my background is a drawing I need transform Shelby first to get her closer to a drawing before I place her on it.

So I open the PNG and choose Editor, then edit, then go over to the side bar and open ‘Effects’, and choose Watercolor pencil. (11) crank to 100 and hit apply. (12)
11 - Photoscape edit effects.jpg
11 - Photoscape edit effects.jpg (213.29 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
12 - Watercolor Pencil 100 Apply.jpg
12 - Watercolor Pencil 100 Apply.jpg (205.64 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
At this point she was looking good but rather anemic and I wanted to add some warmth. So select ‘Film’ on the sub bar, film again, and then scroll through trying each one and see what works best. A01 looked good so I crank it to 150 and hit apply.
13 - film warmth.jpg
13 - film warmth.jpg (148.35 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
If you need to clean up any residual mess you missed earlier - like on the right side above her hand. Now is a good time. And now you can save - chose save as so you can retain your originally edited version for different effects later if you want. Keep it in PNG format (that retains the transparent background and go ahead and save. When done saving hit the X on the sub bar as you’re going to switch back to Preview. - But you can keep PhotoScape open as you’ll come back to it.
14 - save as new file png.jpg
14 - save as new file png.jpg (108.98 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
In Mac Preview open your saved image from 13 above and your background in two separate windows. Select all (your subject) and hit copy. Move over to the background Image window and ‘Paste’. Now depending on the relative sizes / resolution of each image you’ll have to resize and adjust the placement of your subject, about a zillion times in my experience, until you get it to look right.
15 Preview copy paste .jpg
15 Preview copy paste .jpg (157.9 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
A note here - So far as I have found one limitation of using preview to do this is that it really doesn’t allow you to move ‘layers’ forward or back, at least not when working with PNG files. So you need to paste the image you want on top - last. I’m sure you can do that, and the step above, in PhotoScape. But I’ve tried to figure it out a few times and I’m baffled - so I gave up. :-)

Once you have your subject placed on the background where you want it - choose Export, change the file name so you can go back if you need to, and at this point you can just save as jpeg - although I do keep the quality at best.
16 - Export.jpg
16 - Export.jpg (194.74 KiB) Viewed 3061 times
Now, go back to PhotoScape - and open the file you just exported above. For this (final) round really I just needed to blend them a little better and knock down Shelby's realism a tad more. So I followed the same steps as above for the Watercolor effect first - but dropped the amount down to 25 or so and apply. Then the Film effect - and same deal - chose the same A01 effect but dropped it down to around 50 and apply. Then Save as your final image and you’re done!

I love watercolors but couldn't actually paint my way out of a corner. So I hope this helps others give it shot.

Thanks,
Agent D.

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Lena21
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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by Lena21 »

That is a really nice real-time experience!
I actually love that.
I have to tell HD about it, but it seems he has other things to do now.
Well, he's only human.

Keep it going!

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hansdampf21
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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by hansdampf21 »

Agent D - this is a very nice tutorial!

However, if someone is looking for a free editor - i can highly recommend The GIMP.

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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by catomacreek »

Agent D, love what you've done. Hadn't thought of the possibilities.
For some mod-able games you could use pictures of you're doll to help create her in 3D, then use her as your game character.
I bit of work I know, but doable.

hansdampf21
I can highly recommend The GIMP.
Used GIMP and an older version of Blender for 3D. Both free.

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Agent D
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Re: Watercolor technique tutorial - also works for Manga

Post by Agent D »

Greetings -

Thanks HD and Lena -
I tried gimp some time ago as it is highly rated. But for some reason I just couldn't get the hang of it. At this point, the Mac Preview tool is quite surprising. Nikki did her entire day in the park journey with just that.

catomacreek - Thanks - I'll check out Blender 3d - I see they have a MAC / Linux version. I'd love to try some 3d stuff!

And mabey Gimp supports it too, but PhotoScape also makes movable GIF's a no-brainer. I'm thinking that's my next bit of fun. :-)

Agent D.

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